Cursed Blood
by Webster'sWeb
Summary: This is a short and random plot inspired by a simple idea: Hidan from Naruto adapted as a character into the My Hero Academia universe. Swearing ahead (Obviously. I mean, it's HIDAN).
1. Bleedin' Psycho's Debut

**I've hit a tough spot in my main story of interest, You Had Me At Meow, which I am slowly trudging through bit by bit. I refuse to abandon it between starting school full-time, working full-time, and having a meager personal life. I write fanfiction as a way to de-stress, and in addition to writing Meow, my mind has run with a few other story ideas as well. This one managed to get far enough that I felt it sufficient to share. It may prove to be a stand-alone chapter or maybe added to in the future according to my whim. Expect it to be written rather sparsely and quick-paced.**

**This is a short and random plot inspired by a simple idea: Hidan from Naruto adapted as a character into the My Hero Academia universe. Swearing ahead (Obviously. I mean, it's ****HIDAN****).**

* * *

Bleedin' Psycho's Debut

_As the young heroes of Class 1-A collapsed into their beds after a vigorous day two of summer camp training, outside a sinister wind was brewing. Shadowed figures gathered on a cliff. Masked faces turned to the glow from the building below where unsuspecting teachers planned lessons late into the night. Lessons that would never come to pass on this fateful trip, as we all know…_

The largest figure on the hill shifted forward, coiling with anticipation. _Muscular_. "I'm itching… itching to go… Let's hurry up and move!"

A much smaller figure shook his head, obscured by a mask with military stars. _Mustard. _"It's too soon. Besides, as I already told you, there's no need to do anything flashy."

"Yeah. But who died and made you boss?" Blue eyes and an macabre smile. _Dabi. _"This will just be a signal fire. We'll fill those heroes full of holes and put them in their place. All for a brighter future."

The single female of the group looked bored, unimpressed by his convictions. _Himiko. _"Sure, but I mean… this is no good. Not cute at all."

"Our shadowy orchestrator has planned everything. Despite appearances, there is sure to be sound reasoning behind it all," Mustard reasoned.

"Not asking about any of that. Just saying this isn't cute," Toga shot back.

"Who the hell _cares?_ Let's get down there. My blood's pumping over here!" Muscular's knuckles cracked in growing irritation, veins in his arm popping as muscle fibers rippled and gathered uneasily beneath the skin.

"Shut up, you wackjobs. Not yet… we wait until all _eleven_ are here." Dabi turned, alerted to a sound in the trees.

Heavy boots announced the arrival of the expected parties. "Sorry to keep you waiting." Magne's thick lips spread in a perky, if not menacing, greeting smile.

A reptilian man stepped out to her right with a smile to match, tightening his headband._ Spinner._

The slim man on her left wrapped in black and restraints whined. "Job… a job…" _Moonfish_.

A hand patted Moonfish's back, as one might do in affection to a pet. The final member of their group presented himself, distinctive purple eyes crinkled in a manner that matched the smiling red oni mask with long white canines that obscured the lower half of his face.

"We would have been here sooner, but this guy wanted to stop for a snack on the way."

In his other hand, he carried a formidable, red triple-bladed scythe. He gave it a lazy spin and stopped it with the blades pointed at Moonfish's face beside him. The outline of dried bloodstains still on the sharp edges stood out in the moonlight. "How could I turn down a face like that?" Moonfish gave another whine.

Muscular paused in his growing impatience, eyes flicking to their final addition. His lips pulled back sharply in a smile, voice pleased. "Well, I'll be damned. They got you in on this, too. Bleedin' Psycho."

The oni-masked villain chuckled, settling the scythe on his shoulder. "Long time no see. Meat-Headed Bastard."

Muscular took the comment well with a dark chuckle.

Dabi squinted at them, on the edge of disapproval. "You weren't spotted, I hope."

The oni mask smiled at him. "Not by anyone still living."

Dabi relaxed. "Hmph… I suppose I shouldn't have worried, with this group." He turned his eyes back down to the building below. "Doesn't matter how many punks with ambition you bring. That only increases the risks. It's far better to have a small number of experienced _elites_."

The group smiled in collective approval, energy building in anticipation of the hunt.

"First, we'll make them understand: That their _peace_ rests in our hands."

* * *

_The students trained on the third day, sharpening their skills to face villainous threats that they never could have imagined had crept so close. As night fell, they began their test of courage. All seemed to be going well until the first trickles of smoke began seeping through the trees. The first students of Class 1-B fell unconscious to the gas. Something was wrong, they finally noticed. But it was already too late to stop what had been set in motion._

The forest burned under Dabi's smoldering fingertips, blue flames licking the skies and lighting up the danger in his eyes. "Let's begin. Put them in their places… League of Villains' _Vanguard Action Squad_."

_A cute shadow crept through the trees, stalking two pretty little things. Holdings hands in comfort. Ochaco, Asui… so __**cute**__. _

"Stay out of our way, kitty cats." _One crushed beneath their heel, they grinned at the horrified students._

_The largest shadow crept up to the ideal vantage point. And what should he find, but a little treat waiting for him at the top? _"By the way, that hat's pretty slick, kid."

_And now, for the final thread._

"In today's remedial lesson, we'll be drilling you on what to do in emergency situations."

_A lesson one day too late._

"_Everyone! We're under attack by two villains! And there might be more out there!"_

Eraser spun out the door. "Vlad, take care of the students here. I'm heading to protect the others." His hurried footsteps echoed down the hall. _How did our location get leaked?! I'd rather not imagine…_ His thought froze along with his feet when he stepped out into the light. _Light_. It was _night_. The forest was on fire.

"Always worrying about others, huh, Eraser Head?"

_Not a student's voice._ Eraser Head's head spun, eyes flashing on instinct as flames flickered to life on Dabi's hand. "_VLAD!_"

The flames engulfed the space where the hero stood, and Dabi smirked. "You Pro Heroes stay out of the way. You're not the ones we've got a beef with."

"Hahaha!" Oni approached from the tree line with a bared grin. "Hot damn, Dabi!" He stopped, pointing his scythe. "… But you missed."

Dabi's eyes shifted up over his dying flames to where Eraser had dodged on a mere second's notice to the door frame. "Well… guess that's a pro for ya."

Erasure coiled down on his knees, eyes laser-focused on the villain. Dabi's heated hand stretched out again. Eraser's red glare didn't leave him as he lunged down. "Not gonna work." His Capturing Weapon wrapped around Dabi, who stumbled back in surprise.

"Woah!"

Eraser tugged on the cloth, his knee racing down to meet Dabi's face with a solid jab. An expert spin and half a second later, Dabi's forehead was cracking on the dirt with Eraser keeping him there, body weight on his back and a hand firmly on the back of his head. The Pro had a mind to keep them there, too, were it not for the whistling of wind that tipped him off.

His eyes flicked up as he crouched flat against the detained villain's back, avoiding the large three-bladed scythe that whizzed by over his head. His gaze caught on the metal cable wobbling in the air, attached to the end of the scythe's handle. The cable went taut, and with a mechanical whiz, it started pulling back rapidly. Eraser's eyes widened.

_A scythe on a retractable cable?!_

He abandoned the villain on the ground, diving forward in a roll and spinning around. His intuition proved correct as the retracted scythe passed over the villain again, lower this time to where Eraser had been a moment before and would surely have been struck had he stayed. He tracked its path back to its wielder, observing that the mechanical whizzing of the coil emanated from a cable box on his lower back. The scythe met his hand and he gave it a light twirl as if warming up. Eraser Head stood up, eyeing him warily with the eyes of a logical tactician.

Male, early twenties, above-average height, muscular build. A ragged black jacket littered by holes with a gray fur-lined hood, no shirt, maroon pants, black boots. A reversed pentagram medallion hung around his neck on a chain: cult affiliation or style choice? A half-mask styled as a smiling oni with long canines obscured half his face, but his purple eyes and light gray, slicked-back hair could be identifiable later. Primary weapon was a red scythe with three long blades; large, impractical. Its cable box attachment was supported by a thick gray belt around his waist, and there were pouches on it, too. Secondary weapons? From the way the villain was lunging forward, perhaps Eraser would find out.

"Dabi, you weak fuck!"

Eraser unwound another loop of cloth as he moved forward. _Dabi? The villain on the ground?_ Cloth streaked forward, but the oni-faced villain dodged with ease, throwing his scythe at Eraser. The Pro dodged with equal grace. The villain grabbed the cable and tugged making the scythe flick erratically to follow Eraser as its cable started retracting. He eyed its trajectory and dodged, launching his own attack with cloth and speed. Oni took his scythe back in hand and swiped the air, catching Eraser's coils between the tri-blades. His eyes crinkled with an unhinged laugh as he twirled the scythe, winding up the cloth in the blades then throwing it behind him, captured cloth strands traveling away with it.

"Fetch, you fucker!"

Erasure squinted and immediately loosed the Capturing Weapon from around his neck as he lost a good portion of its length to the distance. _Trying to tangle me up._ This guy was skilled, using a cumbersome weapon in an instant like that. _I won't cut you any slack. _The Pro continued forward, aiming to close the gap, but the villain leaped back. Heat and light tickled his periphery, and Erasure quickly changed his direction to the reverse also.

A wall of blue flame filled the space between them, incinerating the captured coils of the Capturing Weapon stretched between. Eraser quickly shifted his gaze to Dabi, the villain up off the ground though looking worse for wear. The flames sputtered to a stop in his hand as Eraser's eyes found him, but Dabi was smiling. The sound of the flames bursting hid the mechanical whiz of the cable and the swish of the scythe's blades as the villain retracted the weapon under the cover of the flames and flung it forward through the inferno, taking a bet as he aimed at where Eraser had been standing before the flames obscured their view of each other. The hero wasn't looking for it this time.

The topmost blade of the scythe sliced Eraser's left shoulder on its way past him; a deep slice. The unexpected assault of pain was enough to startle him, his eyelids blinking. He grimaced as his hair fell, gaze twisting forward again to the oni-faced villain already on the move towards him. _Coordinating their ranged attacks like that—!_

He shifted to the right being mindful of the scythe's return course to its master on his left, the cable already whizzing. But another burst of flame on his right kept him from getting too far to the side, corralling him in. He sent a quick glare at Dabi again, but it was no use. The result of his injuries from USJ, the delay between his uses of Erasure, was in effect. Two against one, with no Quirk. _These guys are too dangerous._

Erasure pulled back to the front of the building, taking a defensive position. There were pillars to either side of the door and of course the railing above that offered strategic options.

"What the hell?! Dabi, you said these U.A. bastards were the best of the best! Don't go scampering off now, vermin! Not until I've exterminated you! Hahahaha!"

Oni lunged forward swiping off the remains of the tattered Capturing Weapon from his scythe with an unhinged laugh as he closed the gap. Erasure took coils of cloth in each hand, ignoring the sting of his shoulder as he prepared to meet him. And then the door burst open behind him.

Vlad King's bulk shifted past his comrade in a blur, a snarl on his face as he threw a right punch at the oni-masked villain, blood already seeping out of the holes in his glove.

The villain dodged right, swinging his scythe for Vlad's left side simultaneously. Vlad adjusted his attack, right hand opening to grab the swinging scythe with animated blood splitting into grasping fingers. The weapon came to a stop as Vlad's gloved hand took a firm hold of it by the handle just below the blades. The liquid blood tendrils coiled around the blades then hardened, securing the weapon. The villain's distinctive purple eyes locked onto the red substance, a gleam in them. "Oh, ho ho…"

Vlad squinted at the villain's apparent amusement as he smiled beneath the grinning oni mask. "There's nothing funny about this, villain!"

"He's fast, Vlad. That scythe is on a retractable cab—" Eraser's voice cut off as an ominous rumble caught all of their attentions.

_BOOOooOOOoMMM…!_

Eraser stiffened, eyes flicking up. "What was that…?"

"Good news for us, I bet." Eraser and Vlad moved as Dabi's blue flames burst forward again with both heroes in his path this time. Vlad liquefied his blood and pulled away. The villain's crinkled purple eyes didn't leave the sanguine substance as he swiped the scythe through it with a malicious laugh then retreated from the heat of Dabi's flames.

"Sensei!" _Iida's voice._ Eraser's head snapped up to the tree-line where Iida, Mineta, Ojiro, and Koda had arrived.

Dabi peered at them over his shoulder, a predatory look in his eye. "Awww, your precious students…" He raised his hand towards the children, flames flickering at his fingertips.

Eraser was locked onto him in an instant, eyes flashing red again with a vengeance and cloth lashing forward. The coils wrapped around Dabi, pinning his arms at his sides as the Pro leaped onto his back like a cat, pinning him to the ground again.

The on-looking students were stunned. "Woah! Down in three seconds, flat!" Ojiro seemed inspired.

Mineta gloated. "That's our sensei!"

"Students, get inside."

"Ah, right! Let's go, everyone!" Iida took charge, the students followed his lead and started running past the fighting.

Eraser's glare stayed focused on Dabi without concern for the other villain this time. "Vlad, the scythe-wielder is yours."

Vlad gave a gruff sound in confirmation, glaring at the villain in question as he flexed his glove, blood pumping out of the holes in short spears. "Not that it's a competition or anything, Eraser, but three seconds is all I'll need."

The villain laughed. "You must be a disappointing fuck!"

Vlad lunged forward. The villain twirled his scythe slowly up, the lowest blade passing in front of his mask. There was a slit between the oni mask's teeth, enough space allowing his tongue to slip through and lick the Blood Hero's collected blood from the blade. "I was going to kill the other guy first, but you've offered yourself up on a silver platter." He leaped back easily from Vlad's charge as his skin darkened. White skeletal markings stood out in contrast across his bare chest, face, and hands.

_His Quirk? _Vlad squinted. _Not going to let you!_

The villain's free hand slipped into a pouch on the belt and flicked outward, snapping the retractable metal spear into its full length. The hero advanced, undeterred as the villain raised the spear above himself in glee.

"I'll show you a three-second victory!"

* * *

"Your objective, numbers, and positions. Spill it." Eraser focused on the villain 'Dabi' beneath him.

Dabi peered up at him defiantly. "Why should I?"

_Boom… BOOooOOmm…_ More rumbles in the distance and Eraser Head was out of patience. "Because of this!" Eraser snapped back Dabi's arm with an audible pop sounding as he dislocated it. "Your right arm's next. Let's do this rationally. If I get as far as _your legs_, it'll be a hassle for the arresting officers."

"SENSEI!" Mineta screamed.

_Why aren't they moving? _"Get inside!" He barked, but his irritation died when he saw the horror on the frozen students' faces. They were looking at—Eraser spun his gaze around, and then it was his turn to be startled.

The oni-masked villain was standing still with his arms spread to either side, palm up. Strange black and white markings had appeared all over his body. His eyes were blissful and half-open—euphoric, even. He seemed suddenly at peace…

Save for the spear stabbed through his chest. Right through his _heart_.

Vlad had frozen in front of him, stunned into abandoning his aggression with his mouth agape. "He… He just stabbed himself…!"

Eraser couldn't logically comprehend it either. _Committing suicide here?! Why the hell would he—_

The body under him suddenly moved, and Eraser's attention was pulled to the matter at hand. He quickly scrambled back as Dabi lurched forcibly up to his feet, throwing the hero off.

"With this much damage… I'm just about done for. Quite worthy of being an instructor at U.A. Ain't that right, hero?" Dabi sneered at Eraser.

The hero gave a firm tug on his cloth, unmoved by the villain. But then his cloth cut through the villain, his body bisected into dissolving liquid. Eraser's eyes widened. _So that flame attack wasn't his Quirk?!_ First the other one's suicide, and now this?!

The crumbling Dabi gave one final sneer. "Hope you got what it takes to protect them… from _that_ _psycho_." The villain completely crumpled into a liquid goo, disappearing for good.

"Sensei! What the heck's going on?!" Mineta's panicked voice. Eraser's eyes turned back to the bizarre scene unfolding behind him.

The self-impaled villain stirred, mirthful laughter rising up from him as he took hold of the spear and ripped it violently out of his chest with a spray of blood. "Let me share it with you… the _ecstasy of __**death**__!_" His voice was wild and deranged. The wound gushed blood for a moment, and then the tissues began to move, stitching themselves back together, healing.

Vlad suddenly jerked. "Gah!" He stumbled, bending forward with his hands clamping to his chest as he was struck by agonizing pain rippling through it. _What is this?! My chest! _Something unseen was ripping, tearing, gnawing his flesh apart. Warm liquid trickled down into his hands and Vlad pulled them away. He stared at the blood, _his_ blood coating his fingers, and looked down at himself to the site of his chest tearing itself open, blood pulsing forth. He couldn't breathe, sinking to his knees under the paralysis of sudden weakness that took hold of his shocked nervous system as his heart was ripped open.

He could feel the blood seeping into his body cavity with his Quirk. _Too_ _quickly_. The blood was already draining from his face as he folded over on himself with forehead nearly to the ground, head spinning, eyes wide, and mouth hanging open. A feeling of absolute dread crushing his senses. Damaged heart limping a panicked beat, adrenaline surging futilely, breaths turned to rapid struggling gasps, sparks creeping into his vision, brain turning to static as the oxygen supply faltered. _He was dying._

"_It's wonderful, isn't it?"_ Black boots stepped into Vlad's blurring vision. _"That crescendo of sensation building to the climax of life. Every cell in your body giving everything they've got to try and keep it going. It's euphoria." _He lifted the spear above Vlad's bent back, his purple eyes wild with purpose.

"_Death… is the pinnacle moment of living."_

"VLAAAD!"

Eraser's voice cut through the ringing filling Vlad's ears. Urgent, frantic, even. He'd never heard that tone from the man before. It was enough to jolt his dimming senses. Vlad's eyes sharpened, forcing away the blurring at the edges. Teeth clenched shut in a bared grimace as he pressed his hand flat to the chest wound. _Blood Manipulation._

_Blood loss. _The blood pulsing into his body cavity and out onto the ground lifted, wobbled, then steadied pulling back into his emptied vessels at his command. _Repair. _He focused deeply into the core of his chest, surrounding his damaged heart with clotted blood. It was a clot that would never occur naturally. If he let up on the invisible, self-created wall made by his Quirk for even a second it would burst. But it would do for now. _Circulation._ His heart was sealed but wounded still. A damaged pump wouldn't keep him going for long. _I must… keep it moving._ His torso expanded with deep, steadying breaths as he turned and flattened out on his back, pushing aside the natural rise of panic at his mortal, tenuous position to focus only on manually pushing the blood forward in time with the limping gate of his heart. _And now… time._ There was nothing more he could do on his own. Only keep it moving until help arrived.

"Vlad King-sensei!" Hands on his shoulder.

"What do we do, Iida?!" Ojiro looked to their class rep for direction while Koda seemed frozen with his hands close to himself.

"We move him inside!"

Mineta squealed, hands raised to his head in hysteria. "But there's a _hole_ in his chest!"

"We get him to safety!" Iida said again firmly, keeping his voice level despite the panicked looks of his classmates. "And we call for help!" The incident not so long ago with Stain had prepared him for emergencies like this.

Class 1-A. _They're good kids._ He didn't like to admit to Eraser Head's face, but Vlad was proud of them, too. With his eyes cracked open, Vlad watched them blurrily as Iida dictated their path then dashed ahead of them as a blur to get to the phone in the building. Ojiro and Koda lifted each end of his body, Mineta took the door, and together they took him inside. He cast a glance to the battle ongoing before it left his sights, combatants flicking about with deadly agility. _Sorry… Eraser. I don't even know… what it was he did._ He let his eyes slide closed. _Circulate… keep it moving, until… help._

* * *

"VLAAAD!"

It was always a possibility that his colleagues would die. It came with the territory of their line of work. Eraser knew that far too well. But on his watch? Right in front of his eyes? Only over his own dead body.

His Capturing Weapon had been considerably shortened by the preceding fighting, but he had plenty left to let loose for the hand of the oni-masked villain holding the spear over Vlad. Oni looked startled by the coils of cloth that trapped his arm. He looked up in time for Eraser's kick to smash into his face, the pro's teeth bared.

Oni was knocked back several meters but rolled with it. "Fuck!" Aizawa took a low stance between him and Vlad as the students rushed forward to the fallen teacher. Whoever this villain was, he was absolutely dangerous, and Eraser wouldn't let him near anyone else.

"Vlad King-sensei!"

"What do we do, Iida?!"

"We move him inside!"

"But there's a hole in his chest!"

"We get him to safety! And we call for help!"

Iida was handy to have around. Eraser could entrust Vlad to him and focus solely on the matter at hand. He watched the villain as he seemed to get back to his feet easily enough, slicing the Capturing Weapon from his arm with a pissed swipe of his scythe and pulling at the mask on his face. "What the hell man…" Several shards scattered the ground, then it fell away from his face completely into large shards. "You almost ruined my winning smile."

Eraser's dark look didn't budge at the villain's bared, animalistic grin made all the more unsettling by the markings his skin had acquired. _His Quirk? _"What did you do to Vlad King?"

He cocked his head casually. "Who?"

"The hero on the ground."

"Oh, that bloody bastard! I killed him, that's what!" His eyes gleamed as he flicked his scythe up by his face. His tongue darted out along the topmost blade, across the blood collected from Eraser's shoulder near the very beginning of their fight. "And now… it's your turn."

Eraser's eyes flashed red.

The villain twitched as he felt the intangible tug of his Quirk deactivating and the markings on his skin faded. He looked down at himself in surprise. "Huh? What the hell?!" He glared at Aizawa's glowing red gaze. "You fucker, what'd you do?!"

"What is your Quirk?" Eraser said instead, ignoring him with a glare. He was certain of it now; the way the villain talked and reacted, those markings were essential to his Quirk.

The villain didn't answer his question, either, snarling instead. "Fuck you, man!"

"Moron." A third voice entered the fray, catching both of their attentions. "That's his Quirk, Erasure." Dabi stepped out of the tree-line, cocking his head. "Don't you remember the briefing? Dumbass."

Eraser's eyes widened. _There was another one of him?_

The scythe-wielder puffed indignantly. "How the hell am I supposed to remember every damn student and Pro's dumbass Quirk, huh _Smartass_?!"

"Whatever. Enough talk." Dabi sneered at Eraser. "Our mission isn't over yet."

Eraser tensed as the villains focused on him. Back to two-on-one, and there was no one to back him up this time. With a vicious smile and a flick of his scythe, the villain rushed forward, and Eraser moved forward to meet him. They moved swiftly exchanging attacks in a deadly whirl of metallic cloth, blade, and flames. Eraser's eyes couldn't stay still between trying to counter Dabi's flames and not allowing openings for the other villain. Scythe was keen on targeting his left side, sensing the slight weakening of the muscles in his shoulder from his deep slice earlier. They didn't give him a single opportunity to gain ground, moving perfectly in-sync with their ranged attacks and the scythe-wielder's close-range prowess. _Elite villains_. If there were others out there at _this_ caliber…

"Man! Like catching a damn eel!" The villain laughed as he came at him again. "Just let me see more of your blood, already! I'm getting thirsty!" The, frankly _insane_ one, wasn't slowing down at all. Eraser gritted his teeth as he dodged another combined attack of scythe and flame then paused, panting with eyes flicking continuously between them through his fallen hair.

"You're getting slower, Eraser. Tired?" Dabi sneered from his comfortable distance. "It's been a while since I've seen your eyes lit up."

Eraser didn't reply, refusing to rise to their attempts to rile him up. It didn't matter if they killed him. As long as they were here fighting him, it meant that they weren't going after the students. He was the only thing that stood between the students and Vlad in the building behind him and this danger. _Even if it's over my dead body._

"Aizawa-sensei!"

His eyes widened and he turned his head. "Midori—" His voice died when he saw the state his trouble child was in. _He did it again. _Bloodied, battered and bruised, both his arms mangled, especially the right. _Crushed your bones to dust._

Midoriya wobbled closer, speaking in wheezing breaths with Kota peering over his shoulder worriedly from on Midoriya's back. "Sensei! It's really bad! There's a lot I've gotta tell you, but—"

"Hey now, there's a face on the list."

Midoriya's eyes shifted to the villains, just noticing them for the first time through the haze of his injuries. They widened. _Two more villains?!_

"As a matter fact," the villain continued with a gleam in his purple eyes. "I remember your face being right at the top."

Dabi snorted. "So, you remembered something from the briefing after all."

"Midoriya, get inside!" Erasure ordered, his body tense. This was exactly what he didn't want to have happen. These men were predators, he could see it in their eyes already. They had just locked onto some very vulnerable prey.

Midoriya didn't process it, his mind still buzzing from his fight with Muscular. "There're villains here, too…?" His eyes suddenly sharpened. The list the villain mentioned. "W-Wait, Sensei, there's something Mandalay has to hear!"

"Get inside! Now!" _Dammit, cooperate. _Whatever it was, it could wait.

"Oh hey, now, let the brat speak," The purple-eyed villain said with a faux polite smile, leaning on his scythe casually as he eyed Midoriya's injuries up and down. "And while we're at it, I've got a question for him, too."

Midoriya looked at him warily, and Eraser tensely. He wanted to talk? That was a first beyond his excessive profanity.

Dabi looked thoroughly unimpressed. "We don't have time for this."

The villain ignored him. "Those injuries… there's only one heavy-hitter on this team who could pull that off, and he'd never let anyone escape alive." He cocked his head a little, sounding incredulous. "Don't tell me _you_ beat Muscular?"

Midoriya's eyes widened, and Eraser tensed. Muscular was a villain name he recognized. And Midoriya had fought _him?_ If that was true then… his fear about an elite villain squad was confirmed.

The villain judged Midoriya's expression as an affirmation of his guess and cackled. "Well, I'll be damned! I guess that makes two of us who beat that Meat-Headed Bastard!"

Midoriya nearly choked on his breath. "Y-You beat Muscular…?" The villain who nearly killed him by _playing?_

"It's a pretty good jaunt, eh?" The villain chuckled. "Beat the shit out of that guy the first time we met. He's of the same mind as me... goading him into doing exactly what I wanted was easy."

"Enough. Storytime is over," Dabi interjected impatiently.

"Hmph." He twirled his scythe up into a readied stance. "Yeah. Let's pay it forward for Muscular and kill this brat for real."

"Midoriya, RUN! That's an order!" Eraser's no-nonsense voice was in full effect.

The boy froze, indecision gripping his frayed mind. Run, Aizawa-sensei said so. No! Mandalay, Bakugo, so many villains! What should he do, what should he—

"Midoriya-kun!" _Iida._

His eyes snapped to the front of the building where Iida had just burst through the door. "Iida-kun!" Iida looked astounded at the state of his friend's injuries.

Dabi pointed his hand at Midoriya with a smirk. "Bye-bye."

Eraser and Scythe moved at the same, the hero towards Midoriya and the villain towards the hero. Eraser didn't have eyes for him nor Erasure ready for Dabi, the interval having gotten longer and longer. Instead, he thrust his Capturing Weapon at Midoriya, hoping to intercept the flames and pull him out of the way before they reached him. He could see that the student was barely standing as it was. He might have reached him with the cloth, too, were it not for an even swifter blur that brushed his periphery.

Blue flames engulfed empty space, incinerating the ends of Eraser's empty coils. Midoriya and Kota were gathered safely in Iida's arms as he skidded on stretched legs to a halt on the other side of the blast. Eraser's lip twitched. Iida sure was handy to have around. And then his eyes flicked to the shadow on his left. He hadn't been watching _him_.

Eraser was forced backwards onto the ground, managing to twist far enough to avoid taking a blade through his face, but steel cut into his left arm that he had thrown up in defense with his right palm sliced on the blades from trying to push them aside. Purple eyes leered down at him. "Finally got you to bleed." His lips pulled back as he lifted the weapon. "Let's see some more—!"

A shadow the villain didn't see, but Eraser did. Iida, still carrying Midoriya and Kota in his arms, twisted mid-air with a kick aimed for the villain's left side packed with full force. The blow connected well, sending the villain flying a number of meters while Iida skidded to a halt. Midoriya looked stunned from his vantage point against Iida's chest. _Iida-kun's gotten even faster!_

_Just in time!_ _Thanks to our training, I've gotten faster at the sub-50 meters._ Iida looked at Eraser in concern.

"Sensei! Are you alright?!"

"Don't worry about me. Get inside," Eraser rose quickly, though his feet were heavier than he'd have liked as he ignored the pain in his left arm and gathered another handful of capturing material in his left, favoring his sliced right hand.

"Don't think so," Dabi lifted his hand to stop them, but no flames came out. He jerked as metallic fabric coiled around his torso.

Eraser's hair was lifted, eyes gleaming again. "I'll handle this."

Midoriya protested. "Wait! I have to tell Mandalay! Kota, and Kachan…! Kachan!"

"I'll tell Mandalay," Iida said, looking down at his friend.

"There's no time to explain here!" Midoriya seemed to be nearly hyperventilating from the stress and adrenaline, his limbs trembling.

"Then I'll take you to her."

Midoriya quieted and looked up at him. Iida was smiling, his presence reassuring. "You can count on me."

Eraser's eyes didn't leave Dabi, but he listened. "Iida, have Mandalay tell everyone this." Iida looked up. "It's okay to fight back." The class rep's eyes widened a little as he understood the meaning, and then he nodded at his approval.

"Right. Kota, run inside, the others are there."

"O-Okay…"

Iida's eyes shifted to Eraser as he crouched for Kota. "Aizawa-sensei, I came outside to tell you—Vlad King is hanging in there, and help is on the way."

"… Good work. Now go."

Eraser leaped forward as Kota climbed out of Iida's arms behind him and ran for the safety of the door. He pulled Dabi down to the ground and stomped on his head, watching it turn to goo. _Figured as much._ His eyes lifted to watch Iida as he ran with Midoriya still in his arms at top speed. _It was the logical choice to send him with Iida. Midoriya's in no condition to think rationally right now, and Iida's taken charge tonight._ His eyes flicked in approval back to the remaining villain as he pulled himself up off the ground patting the side Iida had kicked, acting in an instant. _Against villains like this, they've got no choice. This is a matter of survival! _

Iida's smile was replaced by a look of serious determination as he sprinted through the woods. _A hero fast enough to save everyone… I'll be that hero tonight!_

* * *

The purple-eyed villain got up from the ground, watching Iida go with a sinister smirk as he patted the side where he'd been kicked.

"That brat got the drop on me."

His praise ended as metallic cloth whipped towards him. Leaping away, he shifted his attention to the hero closing in on him. "I'll be sure to savor him when I'm done with you!"

Steel cable and cloth, blades and technique, brawn and cunning. Villain and hero held their own against each other for yet another round. However, it was apparent this time that one was gaining an edge. The wound on his shoulder, his arm, and his hand were hindering Eraser. His Capturing Weapon also had been cut down to half its length from the strategies of the villains. And lastly, his endurance and speed were waning in the face of their other man's youth, muscularity, and bloodlust. Eraser knew it, but he refused to dwell on it. Even the direst of situations could be turned around with one logically-timed counter-attack.

"_Students! Eraser Head says: It's okay to fight back! Protect yourselves. And also: One of the villain's targets has been identified! It's the student known as Kachan! Kachan needs to avoid battle! And don't make any move alone! Everyone get that?! Kachan!_

_Good, they got to Mandalay._ It was a small relief to Eraser, though Midoriya's message passed through her was troubling as well.

"Why are you targeting Bakugo Katsuki?" He didn't know if the villain would bother replying, but he had surprised the hero earlier when conversing with Midoriya.

"Beats me," the villain replied flippantly, somersaulting over Eraser's coils and out of reach.

_Tch._ Eraser figured it had been a long shot.

"Like I'd believe that crap!"

_Kirishima?!_ Eraser's eyes whipped around to the front of the building, confirming the voice he'd heard. Hands in fists and teeth bared angrily at the villain. And terrifyingly to the hero, he wasn't alone, either, with Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero behind him looking riled up, scared, and anxious, respectively.

"Get back inside!" Eraser snapped at them.

"But sensei, you said it was okay to fight back!" Kirishima argued back heatedly.

"This is not what I meant!" They were going to need to have a lesson on the subject after this, clearly.

"See? I told you that's what he'd say…" Sero murmured nervously earning a nod of agreement from an equally concerned-looking Kaminari

Kirishima growled, his fists tightening. "I can't hide in here while my friends are out there fighting! Not after what they did to Vlad King! Not when you're right outside fighting and getting hurt for us again! They're after Bakugo! I can't take that sitting back doing nothing!"

"Bakugo, Bakugo, Bakugo. Why's everybody so fuckin' obsessed with that guy?" The villain surprised Eraser by speaking again, pulling their attention back to him. The man looked annoyed.

"That handsy fucker, the green-headed brat, Eraserfuck, and now this other brat—I don't see why we're after him. Saying he'd kill people left and right on TV—fucking pretender. He lacked conviction." His arms spread wide; eyes gleaming. "When you say you're going to kill someone, _you kill them for real_. He devalues life by dishonoring death. Death is sacred. It is the pinnacle moment of living! The thing we strive to deny, to outrace all our lives! Someone who treats death so lightly cannot understand the deepest depths of life." He lifted his scythe and pointed it at Kirishima, his gaze piercing straight through the boy. "As his friend… I'll have you show him the way. With your death, he'll be enlightened to what it means to be alive!"

The four students stood paralyzed; breath choked out of them by the bloodlust in the villain's eyes aimed straight for them. This guy was nothing like the fodder villains they fought at USJ. This was what a real killer looked like; a madman.

"That's enough nonsense." Eraser broke the spell, cutting in with his coils lashing forward and moving between the villain and the children.

Kaminari took a step back, his knees feeling weak. "That freak's insane! It's not worth it!"

"Come on, Kirishima. Let's go back inside!" Sero urged.

Kirishima hesitated, his resolve weakened as he watched his sensei and the villain resume their fight. How could he even pretend to keep up with a fight like that? Was he just kidding himself with those words of bravado? His fists loosened and his foot shifted to the side, head turning to look back at his friends and the door back inside. Kaminari looked petrified, Sero panicked, and Ashido—

Ashido was looking at the battle. Her hands were in fists, her body looking almost ready to move but frozen in place. She wasn't smiling. Her eyes slid to lock with his. Questioning and uncertain. _What do we do, Kirishima? _

Kirishima's eyes sharpened. _Ashido…!_

His hands tightened again into fists and he turned straight again. "Heroes… don't turn back." His friends stiffened, looking at him sharply.

"The only direction they run… is straight ahead!" Kirishima dashed forward, his teeth bared for battle. _I won't freeze this time, not with a villain right in front of me again! Not in front of Ashido! That pathetic old me is dead! A life without any regrets… That's how a real man dies!_

Kaminari watched him run forward in utter disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me." Ashido slapped his shoulder, making him jump.

"Come on! He's not fighting alone!" She dashed after Kirishima with a smile she forced to her face in defiance of her fear. _That's not the same-old gloomy face as before, Kirishima!_

"Seriously? Ugh, fine…!" Kaminari followed with less enthusiasm. _We're so gonna die._

Sero paused for a moment in deliberation of returning to the door, then sighed and followed._ Nah, I can't let those idiots go alone… I hope we live long enough for sensei to kill us after._

Eraser gritted his teeth, their voices having not escaped his notice. _Damn teenagers don't listen._

The villain swiped a hand into a pouch on his belt and sharply flicked it out towards Kirishima charging straight for him, smirking as the retractable spear gleamed on its path straight for the student.

Eraser wheeled around. "Move!" There was no way to stop it in time as he watched it.

Kirishima's course didn't waver, the spear aiming straight for his face. The tip struck and shattered against his hardened forehead, the body of the spear twirling up in a high arc as he passed under it without flinching.

It was a relief to Eraser, who turned his eyes back to the villain—the scythe was coming straight for him, thrown in combination with the spear but unnoticed thanks to Eraser's concern exploited. The blades stabbed into his right calf and thigh; a direct hit.

Erasure gritted his teeth and suppressed a sound of pain. The metal cable retracted making the blades ripped out of his leg violently, and his knee buckled dropping him to a crouch on the ground. The villain was already moving forward to meet his returning scythe, taking it in his hand with a gleeful laugh and heading straight for the wounded hero.

"Sensei!" The students cried out.

Erasure pulled himself up into an unbalanced stance on his good leg, staring the villain down with Capturing Weapon in his hands. The odds weren't favorable, but that didn't change the fact that he had to fight.

But Kirishima was running forward also. He adjusted his direction with the villain as he started towards his sensei, his skin hardening to the max as he intercepted him. The villain lifted his weapon and brought it down on the student.

"Die!"

Kirishima held steady, letting the scythe meet his hardened chest unharmed. His arms shot up and told hold of the scythe handle between the blades with a firm grip. Eye-to-eye, he glared fiercely at the villain pressing down with the blade. The villain looked back with his own wild intensity, teeth bared in a vicious smile.

"Hardened skin? Well, I can deal with that, too." He suddenly shifted forward, kneeing Kirishima in the abdomen. "I'll just beat the shit out you until you cough up blood!" Kirishima grimaced as the villain started to beat on him, but he refused to let go of the scythe as the two of them shifted this way and that with each of the villain's blows, the man unwilling to let go of the scythe, either. _I can't let him hurt the others with this weapon! I'm the only one who can stop it like this!_

"Hiya!" Corrosive liquid glittered in the air between Kirishima and the villain, splashing down on the weapon.

It hit the villain's hands and arms, and he let out a surprised growl as he let go of the weapon and scrambled back holding his arms up. "Gahhh! What the hell?!"

It hit Kirishima's arms, too, but he only blinked in surprise at the drops that splashed him; his skin softened with a sizzle, but the acid didn't hurt him through the toughened surface.

"It won't kill you, but you won't like it, either!" Ashido declared with a satisfied look on her smiling face.

"Thanks, Ashido!" Kirishima's eyes shifted to where Sero and Kaminari were with a grin. _Kaminari! _"Sero, catch!"

"Huh?" Sero flung his tape out as Kirishima threw the scythe back in his direction, cable wobbling in the air behind it. "Why would I need that thing?" He questioned, but still caught it with his tape and reeled it in, anyway.

Beside him, Kaminari's eyes lit up as he looked at the captured weapon pinned to the ground in front of him by Sero's tape, gaze following the metallic gleam of the cable all the way back to the cable box on the villain who was swearing loudly and trying to rub Ashino's acid off on his pants completely distracted. "The cable!" His trepidation from moments before vanished, replaced with a sudden, confident grin as his hands sparked to life. "I can go all out with metal!"

"Give it all you've got, Kaminari!" Ashido cheered as he took hold of the cable in both hands and Sero very wisely backed away.

"Heck, yeahhhhhh!_" Indiscriminate Discharge 1,300,000 Volts!_ Electricity raced up the cable to the villain, lighting up the area with bright yellow light. It reached his body and he seized up as it coursed through him. When the light died out, the villain sunk to his knees, muscles paralyzed and twitching uncontrollably.

"Yeah~! Yeah~!" Short-circuited Kaminari gave a thumbs-up.

"We did it!" Ashido fist-pumped the air.

Sero looked stumped. "Huh. That almost went _too_ smoothly." He shrugged and gave a relieved smile. "But I guess the three of us did work together before." And they had done pretty darn well in the cavalry battle, too.

"Uh-huh!" Kirishima smirked, softening his skin.

Their celebration was interrupted by Eraser's Capturing Weapon whipping forward and binding the villain, pinning his arms to his sides. They watched their sensei with a hint of trepidation creeping in as he studied the incapacitated villain in silence for a few moments to confirm his immobilization, then set his red eyes on them. All was silent for a moment, and then his coils lashed forward again.

"Eek!" A squeak was about all that made it out of them before he had them all bound together in a single bunch, heads conking together.

Eraser sucked in a breath and let them have it with a furious expression of stern authority. "THAT BEHAVIOR WAS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE! WHEN I GIVE YOU AN INSTRUCTION, YOU LISTEN! NO BACKTALK! YOU DO NOT JEOPARDIZE YOUR OWN SAFETY! THE FOUR OF YOU ARE GOING TO BE BURIED IN REMEDIAL LESSONS FOR THE REST OF THE SUMMER UNTIL YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULLS! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Four meek voices replied, throbbing bonked heads bowed in shame. "Yes, Aizawa-sensei."

"I DIDN'T HEAR YOU!"

"YES, AIZAWA-SENSEI!"

He looked down at them sternly for another moment with his red glare, then his features relaxed with a sigh and he closed his eyes letting his hair drop and the coils loosen. It had been necessary to strike while the iron was hot before they had time to internalize their success at flaunting his authority. Their foolishness had caused him to be distracted and injured. Still, the fact that they were safe, that they had managed to work together so quickly against a formidable foe… Damn teenagers with their foolishness and ingenuity.

A dark chuckle caught his ear, and Eraser peered with narrowed eyes over his shoulder. Speaking of said foe.

"Man, if that's how you treat them when they won, I can't imagine what you'd do if they'd lost." The villain was watching them, looking highly amused as he focused on Eraser. "Would you _kill_ them?" He asked the hero, looking absolutely pleased despite his predicament in a way that Eraser didn't trust at all. His muscles were still twitching, but the man had recovered quickly with exceptional durability.

Eraser turned and started limping towards him. "If you had things your way, they wouldn't be alive to lecture. I'm actually… rather glad that they won."

The students perked up slightly. It certainly wasn't a commendation of their actions, but it was no doubt the closest they would get to a compliment on their efforts. "Now, it's your turn. Your objective, numbers, and positions." Eraser stopped in front of the villain, glaring down at him and pulling his coils tighter while the villain just kept grinning. "Spill it. _Now_."

"Burn in hell," the villain shot back without skipping a beat.

Eraser was ready to punch his teeth out for real in addition to his mask, but before he could proceed to do so, blue flames erupted out of the trees and lit up the night. Eraser stumbled back on his wounded leg, resorting to leaping away from the flames that raced towards him and the villain and flat onto the ground, narrowly avoiding them. They surrounded the man kneeling on the ground in a flaming wall, incinerating the coil of fabric between him and Eraser.

"Interesting choice of words." Dabi stepped forward out of the tree line with a smirk. "Think I can oblige."

The villain looked over his shoulder with a joyful smile as Dabi walked up behind him. "Aw, hey! You're back, Smartass!"

"And you're getting your ass kicked by children." Dabi put a hand to the tied binding cloth still around the villain and combusted it by touch. "Pathetic."

The villain's smile vanished for a snarl. "You're one to talk! You've died twice while I've been holding them all alone, Smartass motherfucker!"

"Whatever." Dabi's expression turned more serious as his eyes flicked to the hero gathering himself up off the ground and the tense students. "The mission is complete. Get to the evacuation point."

_Complete?_ Eraser and the students stiffened.

The purple-eyed villain's smile was back in an instant, looking at Dabi with sudden sweetness as he picked himself up off the ground brushing away the cinders of the capturing cloth. "Awww! Are you saying you're here to rescue me, Dabi-chan? You're the fucking best."

Dabi lifted his hand at the hero and students. "Go."

"Wait—!" Kirishima shouted, starting to rush forward with Ashido right beside him. _If the mission is complete, then does that mean that Bakugo is—?!_

Blue flames spilled forth again, racing for the children. Before it could it reach them, however, a strip of tape affixed to each of their backs and yanked them out of harm's way. Sero looked exasperated._ Did they already forget sensei's lecture? Sheesh!_

The blue flames suddenly sputtered out, and Dabi's eyes flicked to Eraser and his red eyes. The interval had been getting longer and longer, but he still had one last good Erasure in him to stop that. As for how he was going to actually immobilize Dabi again, that was trickier with his injuries and shortened Capturing Weapon.

Sero noticed it too, along with his sensei's floating hair. _Sensei's got his Quirk!_ His eyes shifted to Dabi and he dispensed his tape. _And I've got the rest of him!_ The tape attached to the front of Dabi's chest and he was yanked forward with Sero pulling him straight towards Eraser. "He's all yours, sensei!" _I really don't need another lecture._

Eraser was happy to oblige him, moving forward and driving his elbow into Dabi's gut with everything he had left all the way to the ground, pinning the villain underneath him and then punching him repeatedly in the face until Dabi dissolved into goo beneath him. His eyes closed and he slumped a little, letting out a tight sigh. _That had better damn well be the last one!_ Then his eyes peered over at Kirishima and Ashido, who had run forward yet again.

The two students bowed their heads guiltily while Sero rubbed the back of his head apologetically; Kaminari, still zonked, continue giving carefree thumbs-up behind them. Erasure evaluated the group for a pause then his eyes shifted to the trees where the scythe villain had disappeared to. _There's no way I can catch up to that villain with my leg injured like this. _His eyes shifted back to the children.

"Kirishima, Ashido, take Kaminari back into the building. The three of you, _**stay inside**_." He gave Kirishima a very pointed look, and the student gave sharp bow.

"Right, sensei!"

"Also, tell Sato and Koda to come out here. Sero, stay here." The students looked at him questioningly, but he did not elaborate further, his eyes already turning back to the burning forest.

_I'd rather not have to rely on students like this, but with my injuries my ability to rescue the other students is compromised. An evacuation point… it sounds as though their assault is over. Since the scythe villain was pulled back, it's logical to reason that all of the villains received the same message and are leaving the area, making it safer. Kirishima and Ashido have proven themselves brash and untrustworthy with instructions and Kaminari is of no use like that. Sato has the strength to carry individuals, Sero has tape to help secure them and behaved reasonably just now, and Koda can call animals to help find students as well as utilize his strength. "The mission is complete"… I'd rather not assume the worst, but… _

Hope wasn't necessarily a logical emotion, but hoping that all his students were well was all that Eraser had to go on right now.

* * *

"Fucking brats got my scythe!" The purple-eyed villain grumbled curses under his breath as he ran through the woods heading back to the meeting point. "At least I got that bloody bastard, but not Eraserfuck. _Fuck!_ I wanna kill that guy! And all those damn brats, especially that red-headed twerp, and that glasses-bastard who ran off—"

He suddenly stopped running, a thought occurring to him. _And that green-haired brat he ran off with… did he really beat that Meat-Headed Bastard? _He lifted his eyes and searched, settling his eyes on the tall hill nearby. _All that rumbling came from over that way…_ For a moment, he considered his options, contemplating how much time he had between settling his curiosity and the evacuation point expiring. Then, his lip twitched back in a smirk. "Ah, hell, I have to see this for myself!" He changed course, heading for the hill.

Crumbled rock above him was his first indication of the fight that had occurred as he ran up a narrow but well-worn path. When he reached the top, the numerous large craters made it clear that without a doubt Muscular had been here. "Looks like he was having a grand old time!" The villain laughed. "Let's see, now, where is he? Did he get to the meeting point already—Oh! There." He spotted the large man surprisingly well-hidden in the massive crater in the hill face. "Holy shit! Did Greenie really do this damage?"

He studied the crater, looking rather approving of the destruction. Leaning forward over Muscular's body, one look at the man's face confirmed he was out cold. The villain slapped his cheek. "Oi! Meat-Head!" He slapped him a few more times in quick succession. "Stop sleeping on the job! It's time to book it out of here! You want to get left behind, huh? They'll lock you up!" Muscular didn't even so much as twitch.

The villain pulled back and crossed his arms, looking annoyed. "Ehhh, this is no good. Meh, I should just get out of here, he's not getting up anytime soon…" He considered it for a moment, his eyes shifting back towards the meeting point direction. Then they returned to Muscular with a sigh. "Fuck, no, I can't do that, dammit."

He crouched and looked at Muscular in an almost heartfelt, friendly way. "I can't deprive the world of a true killer like you." He pulled Muscular forward by his arms, adjusting to hoist him across his back securing him in place by an arm and a leg.

"Fuck! Why are you so heavy?! Fucking deadweight!" The villain shouted complaints at the unconscious villain on his back which settled into grumbled bitching under his breath as he slow-jogged down the hill. Muscular shifted limply with each step, not waking up any time soon.

The villain huffed a little as he entered into the cover of the trees again. He was strong, no shit, but Muscular was nearly a foot taller and much heavier than him, and he had a long way to trudge yet. "Son of a bitch, eat a salad!"

By the time the villain approached the meeting point, he had slowed to a trot. "Finally, here, dammit…" He nearly walked out into the designated clearing, but movement caught his eye and he quickly pulled back into the shadows of the trees. Students. _Why the fuck are there brats here?_ He could see Greenie and Glasses, along with a Birdbrain, Octopus, and Half'n'Half. But as for his fellow villains, and the shadowy Warp Gate—his eyes widened as realization dawned on him. His detour to the hill, his slow path back down the hill and through the woods with his deadweight cargo. He twisted around in a fury, shaking his fists as he stormed off with Muscular still slack across his back.

_FUCK!_

_As Dabi would have said had he not already been gone: "You're late, Dumbass."_

* * *

Epilogue

_Back at the base, fire trucks, ambulances, and police vehicles swarmed the scene. Vlad King was loaded into an ambulance with a distraught Neito shadowing his sensei's side the whole way. Please, he prayed. Survive, Vlad-sensei._

_Eraser, Sato, Koda, and Sero advanced into the forest with the students following their sensei's instructions in rescuing the scattered students and regrouping. Creatures of the night scurried ahead of them at Koda's beckoning, and Sato's sugar-enhanced back was piled high with unconscious students taped in place by Sero._

_Elsewhere, Iida and Midoriya had reached Mandalay and conveyed their message. Iida had wanted to return to the base, but on Midoriya's plea he had agreed to go in search of Bakugo. They had regrouped with their classmates along the way, but alas, in the end, it was not enough to keep Bakugo from being taken from them. Iida listened to Midoriya wail with shame weighing his heart. He had run as fast as he could, but not fast enough for one. _

_And as for the villain carrying the unconscious Muscular, he disappeared into the forest with a string of curses under his breath to places unknown. Unidentified by the heroes, who was this dangerous foe? What was his Quirk? Just what was his relationship to Muscular? Where would they go next—__**What**__ would they do next?_

_Perhaps, someday, the author will have the time to write it all out. To be continued…? The author certainly hopes so._


	2. Mad Dogs Running Wild

I don't want to call this guy Hidan because he's not Hidan _exactly_, but I'm still working on a name that embodies the fun MHA naming conventions of having a meaning that's really on the nose, so he continues to remain nameless in this chapter.

* * *

Mad Dogs Running Wild

"Male, early twenties, above-average height, muscular build. Purple eyes, light gray hair slicked back…"

The police officer typed the answers in-time with Eraser, eyes focused on the laptop in front of him. They were seated in the summer camp building in a private room designated for meetings between heroes or teachers. Now, it served as a temporary base of operations for the police at the scene to take witness testimony after the U.A. summer training camp disaster while the events were still fresh in their minds.

Eraser was looking rough. Multiple paramedics had attempted to dissuade him from delaying medical attention, but he had ignored them all. Securing this information now was far more vital before time made memories fail. The police at least managed to persuade him to get bandaged up before they would speak with him, observing the bloodied gashes on his leg, arms, and hand that would surely need to be thoroughly cleaned and stitched up, later. He obliged, and then went straight to the chair with the officer across from him.

The questions themselves weren't anything new to Eraser. After so many years of hero work, the paperwork that came after the action was just a fact of life. The circumstances, though… his level voice, logically devoid of emotion, gave away none of the tension he was feeling.

Fifteen of his forty students were in critical condition. Eleven others were injured. And one was missing. _They took him alive._ His brain assured him. You didn't go to the troublesome effort of abducting someone just to kill them, logically. _But were these villains logical?_ Could their way of thinking truly be predicted like that? He wanted to believe that they had a purpose in taking him alive, and for that reason, Bakugo Katsuki _must be alive_.

"Were you able to observe his Quirk?"

Eraser was silent, and the officer looked up. All of his answers were so immediate and succinct that a single pause carried weight. Visions of the villain with a stake pierced through his chest, skeletal markings coating his skin, and Vlad collapsing with his heart bleeding out while the villain was healed cycled through Eraser's mind. There was a pattern to it that he could recognize, but not so much that he could form a definitive conclusion on its workings. He told the officer as much, describing the events of the battle chronologically, focusing on stating the facts only and not hypothesizing anything. Now was not the time for that.

_If I had fought him instead of Vlad, it wouldn't have happened._ The thought couldn't help but worm into the back of his mind, whispering in an accusatory tone. He ignored it. Attacking Dabi was the most logical course of action at the time. Vlad was equally-matched physically to the scythe-wielder by his estimation, and his preference for weaponry was ideal for Vlad's style of close-range capture combat with Blood Control. Erasure put a stop to Dabi's flames immediately while Vlad would have been disadvantaged against a ranged opponent. _Erasure would have put a stop to the scythe-wielder's Quirk in an instant, too. If you had just picked correctly, it never would have happened—_

_Now is not the time._

"The villain called 'Dabi' came back to save the scythe-wielder?"

"That's right."

The officer paused for a moment then typed.

"Earlier, you said the villain called 'Dabi' referred to him as a 'psycho' and 'Dumbass'. Did their relationship seem antagonistic? Or, was there familiarity between them?" What was the common ground that bound all these underworld threads together?

"They coordinated their attacks well. They spoke rather roughly towards each other. I can't determine much beyond that."

"And he never referred to the scythe-wielder by name?"

"Correct."

The officer typed.

"What happened next?"

_He got away_. Eraser didn't let it show how much he was stewing on that fact. That dangerous scythe-wielder and all but two of the others. Muscular hadn't been found, either, despite Midoriya's apparent victory. Scythe, Muscular, and Dabi; those three alone were enough to make his blood boil. _They got away._

Somewhere, they were lurking in the shadows. Somewhere, they had Bakugo Katsuki captured _alive_. Somewhere, they would strike next.

And there was nothing Eraser could do about it but _paperwork_.

The testimony wrapped up, the police officer thanked him for his words, and then he was whisked away by an impatient-looking paramedic to be taken to the hospital for treatment. All of the injured students had been taken ahead of himself, just as he liked. Vlad had been the first. _Vlad…_

Eraser's eyes hardened. Wherever they struck next, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He wasn't going to let the scythe-wielder out of his sight.

* * *

"Hah… hah… hah…fuckin'… deadweight."

The villain huffed, dragging the large body of Muscular along by his armpits. Sweat streaked down his face and chest, and he looked exhausted. He had carried the hulking brute of a man across his back for as long as his strength would allow, but eventually, he just had to drop the bastard. He'd been dragging him across his ass through the dirt ever since, up and down all the god-forsaken forest terrain. Fortunately, he had gotten them far enough away from the summer camp that they weren't at risk of being captured.

He paused, letting Muscular's body go with an unceremonious flop. His face tilted back towards the sky as he stretched out his spine, breathing deeply. He pulled a phone out of his jacket pocket and looked down again to check the screen; GPS. He had been careful to pick a road some distance from the camp to aim for to avoid the cops. Years of evading capture had taught him that much. However, in practice, this plan was going miserably with the marker on the screen barely moving for all the effort he was putting into this. He glared irritably at the unconscious man flat-out in the dirt. "This is your fault, bastard. Fucking wake up, already."

Muscular didn't oblige him so much as a twitch. The villain kept glaring. "If I had left you behind, I wouldn't have to be dealing with any of this crap, you know." He stalked over to the unconscious villain and stood above him with a foot to either side of Muscular's hips, glaring down on his busted-up face.

"I could just leave you out here, you know. You'd wake up without a fucking clue where you are or where to go." The villain lifted his foot and stomped it down on Muscular's stomach. A few more stomps across Muscular's shirtless torso followed, and then he dug his boot into Muscular's cheek. He paused, glared at him silently for a moment, and then pulled his boot back. He crouched over him and grabbed a tight fistful of Muscular's hair, lifting his head close to his own face.

"I could strip you buck-ass naked for good measure, just to piss you off. Hell, you're already half-naked." Muscular's slack jaw offered no complaint. Purple eyes squinted as he threw Muscular's head back against the ground and put a hand into a pouch on his belt, pulling out a retractable spear and whipping it to its full length. He swiped it down sharply, stopping it with the tip just shy of touching Muscular's remaining eye.

"I could carve you up. Here, and here, and hereandhereandhere!" He brought the spear down over Muscular's vitals, tip ghosting the air above his skin. "I could just start stabbing until you wake up screaming, then rip out your chords and shove'em down your throat to shut you back up." The final stroke of his spear touched Muscular's throat. He pressed in slightly, watching the tiny pinprick of blood that formed with an intense focus.

"… I'm bullshitting of course, but I could do it, ya know." The tension in his gaze broke as he glanced away disinterestedly and lowered the spear. He stood and walked away, turning back around to face Muscular as he slid his back down against a tree with a sigh, settling with his arms wrapped loosely around his knees and the spear held lightly in his fingers.

"… But. Nah. I don't feel like it." He looked at Muscular again, the intensity from before gone and replaced with an oddly honest, admirable look from the bloodthirsty villain. "A pathetic death like that is unworthy of you."

Muscular still didn't move, and the other villain was motionless for a long pause as he looked at him. Then, his head dropped back against the bark as he closed his eyelids, resting his eyes and his buzzing muscles. There wasn't really any point in rushing right now. The heroes and the police didn't even fucking know they were out here. Since the Meat-Headed Bastard was going to sleep on the job, he could take a load off, too. Just for a minute…

* * *

_The first time they had met, they were meant to kill each other._

_Two rival crime groups, in a bid for domination over the other, had each gotten the same bright idea of recruiting their own blood-thirsty brute. When both groups met with deadly intent, only one man from each side was smiling. _

"_Ohhh? You're kind of small, ain't cha?" Muscular loomed over the purple-eyed man a foot shorter than himself, grinning dangerously. "What's a small-fry like you got to smile about, hm? You one of those little guys with big egos who go splat in the first round?"_

_The smaller man laughed, his own teeth bared in return. "You look like a meat-headed bastard who can't handle more than one thought at a time."_

_Muscular laughed right back; an unfriendly sound. "That's right! I'm a simple man. I follow my whim. Right now, I want to kill you. So that's what I'm going to do." His left arm extended to the side, skin rippling as the muscles expanded underneath. "But tell you what, I like the gleam in your eyes. So I'll play nice." The rippling stopped and he held up his muscularly-enhanced left arm with three fingers raised. "I'll give you three shots before I get serious." His left hand snapped shut into a fist and he coiled his arm back, grinning wildly. "Try not to go splat too soon, 'kay little man?!"_

_The scythe-wielder_ _managed to pull away from Muscular just in time, the man's arm passing by his face in a blur so close that the wind brushed his skin. He immediately spun away and gained some distance while the concrete where he had been standing was shattered. The villain noted Muscular's speed; the same as his own._

"_That's strike one!" Muscular held up a finger as he grinned at him and stalked forward slowly, savoring the game. _

_The purple-eyed villain lowered the scythe from his shoulder. He hadn't stopped smiling. _

"_That's a wild-looking blade. Sure hope you know how to use it!" Muscular lunged forward, clearing the several-meters gap between them in a single bound. _

_The purple-eyed villain dodged forward at an angle to Muscular as his fists flew forward, allowing him to take a swipe at Muscular's flank with the scythe's range. It was just a hair too slow, however, with Muscular's body plowing by as a blur. The ground where the scythe-wielder had been shattered, leaving a somewhat bigger crater this time._

_The scythe-wielder sized Muscular up as he turned to face him again. A head-on attack, same as before. He had been ready for him, but the brute had moved faster than last time._

"_Hey, I'm impressed. You haven't gone splat, yet." Muscular turned to face him as well, winding his left arm up like he was preparing for a pitch. "Alright, you've got one shot left!" His arm locked into place as he zeroed-in on the other villain. "Here we go!"_

_The villain timed his counter-attack differently this time, moving one beat ahead of Muscular. The brute of a villain charged as the smaller man threw his scythe while leaping backward, grabbing ahold of the cable and whipping it. As fast as he was moving, Muscular could still dodge the straight-on scythe, but with the whipping motion, its path shifted erratically. The blades passed on his blind-eye side, a smart move on the wielder's part. Muscular listened to the whistle of air next to his ear and tucked his head on instinct honed from responding to such speeds with his Quirk. But the moment stretched in an odd way; no, the scythe was coming back, retracting on the cable to follow him. The lowest blade skimmed his shoulder as he shattered the empty concrete. _

_Muscular watched the cable of the scythe retract with mild surprise then examined the minuscule cut on his skin and laughed. "Oh, that was a neat little trick. Quick! Get me a band-aid! Hahahah!" _

_He straightened up from the crater in the ground, the joints in both of his arms popping as tissues shifted. "Sorry, little man, but that's three strikes. And you what that means." _

_His arms and chest bulged, then bundles of muscles burst out and coiled around his upper body. With a frenzied leer, Muscular laughed as he leaped for the scythe-wielder again with his right arm pulled back._

"_Yoooouuu're out!"_

_Even as Muscular bore down on him with all of his killing intent, the purple-eyed villain didn't move, a smile on his face as he stood his ground and swiped his tongue across the blood on his blade._

_There was a lull in the fighting between the criminal factions around them as Muscular shattered a section of the concrete floor with such force that it sent out tremors which gave all of them pause for concern. Their eyes found Muscular laughing as the dust cleared and he straightened up from the massive crater in the ground, muscle fibers swirling around him in a huge bundle. _

"_Hahaha! And that's that. Nothing but fodder in the end. Man, that's a shame, I actually had a little bit of hope for that guy." _

_One faction's spirit lifted victoriously while the other's slumped in trepidation as Muscular turned his sights to new prey. "Now, onto the rest of you worthless trash." Muscular started to stalk towards them away from the crater, muscle fibers coiled around his limbs and lashing up in tendrils like spikes as he grinned like a demon. However, on his third step away from the crater, his gait faltered. The grin turned to a grimace as a sharp pain washed through his torso. _

"_Urgh!" What the hell?! Muscular hunched over, arms wrapping around himself as agonizing pain gripped his organs. "Ahhhhh! Aaagh! Gah! Who—who the fuck—?!" Muscular snarled as he reeled around aiming a furious gaze to the criminals all around. Who the fuck hit me?! _

_An ominous laugh sounded behind him, and Muscular froze for a moment. That voice! He spun around to face the crater, smile gone from the pain and arms still clutching his abdomen. A form sat up in the center of the crater. _

"_If you had been serious from the start, you would have killed me for real."_

* * *

Something moved, and purple eyes flashed open instantly at the sound, hand tightening around the spear. A glance confirmed that it was only Muscular's boot sliding along the ground as his leg shifted. His grip on the spear didn't loosen as he watched Muscular cough, a hand going across his aching torso then up to his jaw.

Muscular's eyes opened with a squint, staring up at the darkness of the night for a moment as he assessed his swollen jaw and put the pieces of his memories post-blackout back together. _Midoriya…_ His eyes sharpened.

He propped himself up on his elbows and lifted his aching head, struggling to move from the protest of his muscles. Shit, the kid had hit him hard, but not so hard he should be out of it like this. Everything ached; and why the hell was his back all scratched up like he got dragged by a car? His ass hurt, too. What the fuck?

Muscular peered around in the darkness and was disoriented by the trees. Where the hell was the cliff and Midoriya with the pipsqueak? How long was he out for? Was the mission over? If it was, how and why the hell did he end up here? It took him a while to spot the hunched form sitting motionless against the tree. His eyes focused with recognition.

"What the fuck are you doing here? You're supposed to be attacking the main building."

"Idiot. The mission's over," the other villain shot back at him.

"Over…?"

"Fuckin' done hours ago, Sleeping Beauty. See?" The purple-eyed villain pointed up at the sky, and Muscular tilted his head back. There was a faint hint of light in the east, signaling the approaching dawn. But they had attacked at night, before midnight. So if it was the next day and they were here…

"Fuck. The evacuation point!"

"Uh-huh."

Muscular's fist pounded the ground beside him in anger. He'd been knocked out so hard he'd slept the night away. Damn, it had been a hell of a long time since that had happened to him. So, they were stuck out in the woods, now. Great. Wait. _They_. He pulled himself up further into a stiff seated position to get a better look at his fellow villain. He looked tired as fuck and his scythe was nowhere to be seen, but he was alert enough to have a retractable spear at the ready. "I get why I got left behind. That little shit Midoriya knocked me out 'cuz I got careless with him. But why the hell are you here?"

The purple-eyed villain chuckled. "Man, you really are an idiot. Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Muscular growled, looking annoyed. "Just get to the point!"

He seemed to be enjoying annoying Muscular and cast his eyes around at the forest. "Didn't you notice? You aren't on that cliff anymore. And neither of us made it to the evacuation point, even though I easily could have. Instead, we're out in the ass-end of the woods. Why is that, hmmm? Go on, I'll give your simple-minded brain a minute to figure it out." The villain watched Muscular expectantly.

Muscular stared back at the smaller man as he worked the gears into place. When it finally clicked his eye widened in realization, then sharped with a newfound fury casting a shadow over his face.

"What the hell…?"

His teeth clenched in a snarl as he ignored his protesting body and struggled up onto his knees, striving to rise. He pulled one wobbly knee up and planted a foot on the ground, then forced his body upwards. He stumbled a few unsteady steps but caught himself, pausing a moment as he continued to glower at the other man. "You saying… you _saved_ me?"

The smaller man chuckled despite the dangerous gleam in Muscular's eye. "You make it sound like I'm some _hero_."

Muscular lurched forward, hunching in an unsteady gait. "What the hell are you trying to pull, huh…?"

There was a slight pause in his gait, and the man on the ground recognized it instantly as Muscular coiling the muscles in his legs with what little energy he had right now. The spear in his hand which he had kept a firm hold on since Muscular's awakening was raised before Muscular's sudden lunge even began. The hulking villain threw himself forward with right hand outstretched, finding the purple-eyed villain's throat. The rest of him faltered slightly ending up back on his knees with his left arm bracing against the tree, looming over the smaller man.

As for the spear-wielder, the tip of his weapon pressed against the dip in Muscular's throat served as an equal warning to Muscular's grip on his own. The larger man didn't seem to care. Muscular's teeth flashed as he shouted furiously into his face.

"You looking to make me owe you?! I never asked for charity! The brat and I tried our best, and my intent to kill him lost, that's just how it goes. I'd go to prison without holding a grudge, but I'm not some fucking damsel in need of rescue! I'm not giving you a single favor, dammit! I'll kill you first for trying to pull that crap!"

The spear wielder's eyes flashed in equal anger, and then it was his turn to move. Muscular was pushed back with a sudden burst of strength from the other man who used the pressure of the spear on his throat to force him to yield. Their positions reversed with Muscular on his back and the other villain on his chest. The spear stayed to Muscular's neck and Muscular's hands on the other man's throat with their glares not budging as the other man took his turn to shout.

"You fucking Meat-Headed Bastard! How dare you think I'm some sleazy shit! I don't give a crap about you owing me anything, that's not why I did it! Dumb fuck! Why don't you rub your two brain cells together and figure it out?!" The villain paused in his tirade and they fumed, glaring at each other. Muscular stubbornly refused to reply. The purple-eyed villain didn't back down either, but after the silence started stretching out, his snarled lip dropped with an exasperated sigh.

"… Fine, I'll spell it out for you." The anger in his eyes mellowed out and the pressure of the spear eased up slightly. This didn't escaped Muscular's notice, but he neither looked calmer nor loosened his grip. Purple eyes met his sharp black gaze earnestly.

"I did it because we're the same… Because the world needs someone like you. _Like us_… You're an honest killer, through and through."

Muscular's eye widened a little. Purple eyes remained on him steadily. Muscular's fury quieted, and his stubbornness dissolved. He thought about it for real. Thought back to a time not so different from right now.

* * *

"_If you had been serious from the start, you would have killed me for real."_

_Muscular stared uncomprehendingly as the purple-eyed man rose up out of the crater where'd he'd left him. __**Killed him**__. "What the hell is this?"_

_The man looked at him and chuckled with a smile. It looked unnerving with the skeletal markings that had overtaken his skin. But most perplexing to Muscular was that his body wasn't nearly so damaged as just a few seconds ago when he'd turned away. "Tch… regeneration, huh?"_

_Purple-eyes crinkled further in an even bigger smile as he chuckled again; mocking him. Muscular snarled. "Don't you dare laugh at m—" His breath caught in his throat. Muscular choked and coughed several times, his insides jarred shockingly each time making it only harder to breathe. His head bowed forward and he panted and spat, watching and tasting the blood that dripped from his mouth and splattered onto the ground._

_Regeneration… no, that wasn't it. Something was off about it. Who had hit him? His insides were fucking aching and no one was there! There was only __**him**__, and sudden markings… Muscular looked up again, glaring with no confident smile from before to be found on his bloodied mouth. "You did this to me, didn't you? Fucker! What the hell is your Quirk?"_

"_You said you'd play nice, but that wasn't true at all," the man replied instead, rolling his shoulders as he spotted his scythe close by. "I moved as fast as I could each time, but you sped up each time. You rig the game so that you always win, huh? Lame." He picked up the weapon and gave it a light twirl. "Well, anyway, this is what you get for such a bullshit move." His eyes shifted back to Muscular, leering as he pointed the weapon at him. "It's my turn to pick the game now. There's only one rule." His grin split wide and crazed, head tilting to the side. "Hurt me as much you can without dying."_

_Muscular stared at him without getting it, then his teeth gritted and he growled. "What the fuck? Don't screw around with me!"_

"_I'm __**dead serious**__!" The man laughed, throwing his arms open wide. "See? Go for it! I won't even fight back. Just don't get too excited or the game will be over in a flash—!"_

_Muscular flew forward in an instant, swiping the man up by his throat and holding him high with his feet off the ground. He clenched his fingers tightly as he snarled into the man's face. "Cut the bullshit and answer me, or I'll break every bo—" _

_Muscular's throat went tight with an invisible hand choking the words in his mouth. Startled, he pawed at his throat with his other hand. I can't breathe…! He tossed the man aside and pulled his hands to his throat, struggling against an unseen force. The invisible hand disappeared as the man hit the ground, and Muscular sucked in a gasp that turned into a few wheezing breaths from the fluid that rattled in his lungs._

_Muscular panted and tried to absorb what had happened for a few moments, staring at the ground. A hand on my neck… He lifted his own hand and stared at it, then his gaze flicked to the man picking himself off the ground. A hand around __**his**__ neck…_

_Muscular stalked forward a few steps then pounced, grabbing the man by his left arm and squeezing intensely with his enhanced arm. He winced as his own left arm was struck by a sharp, crushing pain. He threw the man back and let his arm go, sending him backpedaling several steps before catching his balance. Muscular examined his own left arm, feeling how the immediate pain quickly subsided into a dull throb. _

"_It looks like you get it now."_

_Muscular looked up coldly at his gloating smile. "Whatever harm I inflict on you, I get instead."_

"_Yeah, it really turns things on its head, doesn't it?" The man confirmed with a dark chuckle. "You want to kill me so badly, but now if you do… you'll kill __**you**__ instead."_

_Muscular's hand curled into a trembling fist. He suddenly sprang forward, throwing his fist into the man's face. Muscular held his punch back a little, though. The man went flying several meters and landed. He watched the man sit up and look back at him with a grin. He pointed at his punched cheek. "Your turn!"_

_Muscular winced as his own jaw ignited with pain. With mounting fury he ignored it and lunged again, punching the man in the chest. By the time the man landed, Muscular was doubled over coughing up more blood from his wounded lungs. The man brushed himself off and stood up, smiling and seemingly unaffected._

"_Big guys like you always reject your fate like this. You've been the biggest shark in your stretch of the sea your whole life. Every problem, you rip it apart. You saw a puny pufferfish and thought you could devour him too, but you didn't count on his poison. The struggle is futile, you know?"_

"_Shut up!"_

_Muscular grabbed him and crushed him up against a wall, ignoring the pain digging into his own back as a desperate grimace marred his face. "You get hurt first, don't you, huh?! I can hurt you! This pain is nothing to me! I'll make you fucking pay!"_

_The man laughed in his face, purple eyes brimming with mirth. "And it's absolutely wonderful! More, more! I love this feeling so much! Show me everything you can do. I want to feel it all!"_

_A masochist. Muscular's teeth hurt from clenching. A masochist who he couldn't kill. Muscle fibers roiled all over his body, and then he whipped around with a scream to throw the man all the way across the abandoned concrete complex where they fought. The criminal factions they represented fighting around them shuddered and pulled away, giving the pair a wide berth. The only ones crazy enough to fight psychos like that were the psychos themselves._

_The man rolled many times, landing violently against the concrete before sliding to a rough stop. Muscular's body tensed and shuddered with each blow buffeting his wounded organs as if he were the one sent flying. He gripped his sides and wheezed, the wind knocked out of his lungs. I can't… I can't fight him like this! It's going to kill me! Think… think! He lifted his eyes and locked onto the man again, then bounded over furiously and pinned him down to the ground before he could get up. He snarled down at his face, muscles swelling and coiling around him. _

"_How the fuck does your Quirk work?!" There's got to be a way out! Every Quirk's got one!_

_The man looked amused. "Me? Oh, I'm nothing special compared to you. You have such a wonderfully straight-forward Quirk for killing! I'm jealous. Mine's such a bitch to get going in the beginning. I'm not the fastest or the strongest around, and I'm really not much of a thinker. Evading and anticipation is the most important thing, you know. As long as I can stay out of the way, it's only a matter of time before I get what I need; I don't need very much at all! Can you guess? What it is that my Quirk requires? Go on, guess!"_

_Muscular shook him and screamed. "Just shut the hell up and show me your blood!"_

"_That's it! You guessed right. Or maybe it was on accident? Hm." He watched Muscular gleefully, his eyes shifting just slightly below Muscular's head and to the left. "Just a little drop, that's all it takes and you're under my curse with no escape."_

_Muscular's eye widened, following the man's gaze and snapping to the small line of drying blood on his shoulder where the scythe had nicked him. That tiny cut… that's all it took for him to do this? Bullshit! Fucking bullshit! He shook him violently. "You're a fucking hack killer! I could kill you a thousand times over in my sleep, and you call it quits with a papercut?! Bullshit!" Muscular pulled his right arm back, enhanced to the max with full intent to kill. _

"_Rrraahhhh!" He slammed his fist down and the ground exploded sending plumes of dust in all directions. Muscular crouched close to the man beneath him, his fist buried in the concrete just shy of his head. The man just grinned. _

"_You missed."_

_Muscular reared back and thrust his other fist into the ground on the other side of the man's head. His body twisted and he swiped at the terrain with a roar, absolutely livid. He wanted nothing more than to kill him, but he couldn't. Not because Muscular was afraid of dying. Because he couldn't give this man the satisfaction of being the one to kill him with such a cheap trick. But he couldn't kill him either without ending himself, so he turned his frustration on the environment. The man on the ground watched with morbid fascination as Muscular went on a rampage aimed at the abandoned factory facility around them, letting loose the bloodlust that he had denied Muscular. The other criminals, barely an after-thought in the two villains' confrontation, made a full-on retreat from the area on both sides. _

_Finally, the rumbles stopped, though dust still hung hauntingly in the air. Muscular wheezed, panting heavily and fending off the wet coughs that tried to shake his lungs. He was hunched in the center of the destroyed facility all around. He was a king, a mad beast of power, the undisputed superior force in every way; chained, wounded by trickery, denied his natural right to kill. He locked his gaze on the bastard responsible for it all. _

_He studied him for a few moments, panting. The man's smile had vanished, a look of awe on his face. Muscular didn't give a shit. He stalked forward, his lips pulling in a bestial grin with renewed vigor. He loomed over his prey and roared._

"_I'd sooner cut my own throat then let you have the satisfaction of killing me! You bloody bastard! I'm going to make you give it up! I'll drive us both to the edge of death a thousand times! Anything you can endure, I can endure more! You're going to beg me kill you, and I won't let you have it! Get ready for the most torment you've ever experienced in your fucking worthless trash life! The only way you're going to get out of it is if you abandon your papercut hack and fucking kill me yourself! So bring it! Come at me and kill me for real! I won't accept it any other way!" _

_Muscular finished, his chest heaving. The man on the ground remained enamored, his eyes wide and jaw slack. His lips pulled back, an excited smile rising to his lips. He rose slowly, not taking his eyes off of Muscular standing before him with a piercing gaze and crazed smile. _

"_When you got serious, you killed me for real, you know?" His voice was oddly soft. He patted his torso; at his insides, referencing Muscular's very first blow. "I only gave you half of the damage back, though. I wanted to keep you alive. I had a feeling, the look in your eyes; I wanted see what kind of person you would be."_

_Muscular stilled, sizing him up as he spread his arms and looked up with earnest, eager eyes. "I was right! You're different from other guys. They give up in the face of their mortality. They surrender to their fear. In the end, faced with the reality of death, they lack conviction in their lives. I have to enlighten them to that fact, pick them apart until they scream for just one more day of life! But you already know. You are intent incarnate. Living to kill is all you know."_

_He picked up his scythe from the ground. "You're right, no hacks. You don't need to be taught a thing… I'll kill you with my own two hands." The blade was pointed at Muscular with a wide-eyed grin. "A worthwhile death is the only one becoming of a killer like you!"_

_The disgraced fury died out in Muscular's chest as he stared back at him. He could see it now; the true intent in this man's eyes. A wild admiration aimed at himself is what he found. No more taunts and petty tricks. Undeterred by Muscular's display of power, excited and not petrified like prey. A true killer looked back at him. The scythe-wielder swung his blade, and Muscular grinned as he leaped to meet him._

_Something shifted in the dynamic between them from that point onward. Not a single word in taunting or threat ghosted their lips, their whole being expressed in their deadly, physical force. They both regained their fierce smiles from the very beginning of the battle, equals in spirit. The scythe-wielder came at him relentlessly, and Muscular rebuked him a thousand times as promised. He held the scythe-wielder face down in the industrial river until his own face went blue, then pulled his head up for them both to gasp for air. He smashed him into a live electrical box and jolted as his own body felt the zap. He pinned his arms down and twisted them until they both snarled from the searing pain of their joints. Muscular let his own bones break just to get the satisfaction of hearing the other man's bones break first. With each strike, his own body's damage increased, but Muscular's grin did not falter as he fought on doing everything short of killing the other man. He would make him submit._

_The scythe-wielder was little more than a ragdoll in a dog's mouth in the face of Muscular's relentless bloodlust. And yet, he laughed; an unhinged sound that echoed through the abandoned complex. With every attack, he gave it his all, but Muscular flicked him away like he was a flea. His speed and power were nothing special compared to the man he fought. The only thing he matched him in was killer intent as he sliced at him with scythe and spear a thousand times. He refused to die and miss out on this euphoria._

_Their battle was a furious frenzy with nothing held in reserve; anything less would be a deranged, twisted form of disrespect to the killer on the receiving end. The end did not come suddenly with some decisive final blow. It was a slow, crawling crescendo, a ceaseless drumroll of exchanged blows building in furious urgency with the need to kill, to win, to prove their intent to live. In the end, the climb was followed not by a dramatic clash of triumphant sound, but of silence._

_Muscular collapsed. The shattered halls of the factory went quiet, devoid of his rumbling assaults. He did not mean to, but the choice was no longer his as his body faltered of its own accord. A thousand blows stack one on top of the next, and his wounded organs couldn't go on. He coughed up blood yet again, his breathing ragged. _

_The other man watched him from where he sat crumpled in a crater in a wall, his own chest heaving. "Your body's fucking timed out."_

"_Heh… yeah." Muscular was still smiling, though. "I can't move my limbs. My Quirk's shot, too. Got nothin' left to give… I'm gonna die soon, so get up and do it."_

_The other man observed him appreciative silence for a few moments, then he smiled. "For as long you're cursed by my Quirk, nothing's set in stone. I'm going to take half of it all back."_

"_Huh?" Muscular looked up at him in confusion. _

_Purple eyes looked back at him steadily. "Pain Split." _

_Muscular went still as an invisible force rippled through his body. Bone mended, bruises cleared up, the aching of his organs decreased, and he could breathe easier. The heavy feeling of his body approaching death pulled back, and he looked down at himself with the realization of his partially-healed injuries._

"_Now we both have a shot of surviving," the purple-eyed man said, smiling without any indication of displeasure towards the injuries rippling into existence across his body._

"_What? No… No!" Muscular pounded his fist on the dirt and lifted his torso up, sitting on his knees as he glared at the other man. "I don't need your charity!" He thumped his chest. "Kill me! It's what we've been fighting for! Don't back out on me like a piece of shit! Are you for real?! Do what you said you'd do or you're fucking trash!"_

"_Nah, that's not it." The other man pulled himself up from the wall, quieting Muscular. He approached slowly, gait heavy from his newfound injuries. "Not mercy. Conviction. This world's so devoid of people like you. So many pretenders and takers-for-granted. They need to be reminded of the depths of life. Make them feel it. Make them __**scream**__ it. At that pinnacle moment of living, let them understand it when you take it all from them."_

_He stopped in front of Muscular. "Keep living a respectable life. There's nothing I'd like more." And stretched out his hand._

_Muscular looked stunned for a few seconds, staring at the hand offered to him. His lips twitched and his jaw closed as his smile returned. "Bastard… don't go getting a bleedin' heart on me or I'll kill you." His hand snapped up, accepting the offer. The purple-eyed man grinned and hauled him to his feet. _

_Muscular turned away, his intent to kill soothed. This one he wanted to keep alive. Kindred spirits in the act of murder parted ways, returning to their just-barely-remembered employers. But before they left, Muscular paused, shooting a promise over his shoulder._

"… _The next time we meet, let's kill something for real."_

_Purple eyes gleamed. "Yeah!"_

* * *

"I did it because we're the same… Because the world needs someone like you. _Like us_… You're an honest killer, through and through."

He pulled the spear away from Muscular's neck and stood up with a jerk, shaking Muscular's fingers loose from his neck.

"Come on, get up already. They're still out there, Greenie and Eraserfuck, and all those brats and heroes. You want to kill them, too, right? You want to run wild."

He held out his hand to him, purple eyes gleaming and earnest.

"_Let's run wild together._"

Muscular studied the hand from his place on the ground and smiled. He remembered it, now. This man would have never bothered with saving a single person on the planet out of the goodness of his heart. He didn't care. He wasn't generous or even conniving. He was far too simple-minded for that. They were very much the same in that way in their intentions. Muscular took his offered hand with a snarl.

"Let's fucking slaughter them all!"

* * *

.

.

.

Nobody died again, _buuuut_ obviously that's going to change next time.


End file.
